Tourist asks street band if he could join. Seconds later, it’s simply DIVINE

Music is truly the international language: When musicians who otherwise wouldn’t be able to communicate get together, they find common ground and create art. That’s what happened on the streets of Florence, Italy, in this video posted by DaJeong Kim in October 2015. Korean tourist Jun-Hyuk Choi, a contrabass player at Chungye University for the Arts in Seoul, asks if he could join Romdraculas for a few moments of jamming. When they agree and decide to play the jazz standard “Autumn Leaves,” it’s aural magic.
Choi may not have known it at the time, but Romdraculas is a very popular “gypsy” street band in Florence. Googling their name brings up countless blogs, dating back to at least 2009, written by tourists who have enjoyed their music and purchased their CDs, including the popular “Firenze” (the Italian name for Florence).

If you look closely, you can see that the upright bass Choi borrows has only three strings, one fewer than is usually there. Nevertheless, the musician plays on, simply making the conversions needed to hit the notes despite the missing string — even through two amazing cadenzas, solo sections for the musician to exhibit good technique.

It’s hard to imagine the world has problems when witnessing strangers connect like this; expressing mutual admiration and respect while sharing a passion and creating art, inspiring smiles from everyone around them … and, through video, around the world.